Text: Edgar Allan Poe (ed. Killis Campbell), “The Happiest Day, the Happiest Hour,” The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Ginn and Company, 1917, p. 31


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[page 31:]

“THE HAPPIEST DAY, THE HAPPIEST HOUR”   [[v]]

[[n]]

The happiest day — the happiest hour

[[n]]

My sear’d and blighted heart hath known,

The highest hope of pride, and power,

I feel hath flown.

5

[[n]]

Of power! said I? yes! such I ween

But they have vanish’d long alas!

The visions of my youth have been —

But let them pass.

And, pride, what have I now with thee?

10

[[n]]

Another brow may ev’n inherit

The venom thou hast pour’d on me —

Be still my spirit.

The happiest day — the happiest hour

Mine eyes shall see — have ever seen

15

The brightest glance of pride and power

I feel — have been:

But were that hope of pride and power

Now offer’d, with the pain

Ev’n then I felt — that brightest hour

20

I would not live again:

For on its wing was dark alloy

And as it flutter’d — fell

[[n]]

An essence — powerful to destroy

A soul that knew it well.

(1827)

 


[[Variants]]

[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 31:]

Title Omitted in 1827.

 


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Notes:

None.

 

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[S:0 - KCP, 1917] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - The Happiest Day, the Happiest Hour (K. Campbell, 1917)